Art History News: Alfred Sisley at Auction

Sotheby's 2017

oil on canvas
Painted in 1874
Estimate: £6,000,000-8,000,000

Falling snow or the snow-covered countryside offered unparalleled opportunities for exploring the effects of light and weather on a landscape, making winter scenes a key motif for the Impressionists. In this rare snow scene by Sisley the bright blue sky alongside the striking interplay between sunlight and shadow on the snow has a spellbinding effect. One of the finest paintings by Sisley ever to appear on the market, this luminous work was included in the seminal Impressionists in Winter exhibition held at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. and Fine Arts Museums San Francisco in 1998-99.

The painting dates from a pivotal period in Sisley’s oeuvre when he was working with a group of artists including Monet, Renoir and Degas on the plans for what came to be known as the First Impressionist Exhibition. Dating from the same year as this influential occasion, Effet de neige à Louveciennes epitomises the expressive style pioneered by this group of artists.

Alfred Sisley

Le Loing à Moret, en été

oil on canvas
Painted in 1891.
Estimate: £5,000,000-7,000,000

Le Loing à Moret, en été is one of Sisley's richest and most accomplished riverscapes, combining the beauty of nature with the view of the town’s picturesque architecture. Sisley first moved with his family to Veneux-Nadon near Moret-sur-Loing in 1880, and continued to live in that area for the rest of his life, moving several times between the two villages. The mesmerising local scenery offered a constant source of inspiration to the artist, who tried to capture the relationship between land, water and sky as well as the changing effects of light on his surroundings. Juxtaposing brushstrokes of bright yellow, green and purple tones, Sisley captures the shifting effect of the intense blue sky on a bright summer day on the surface of the water.

Sotheby’s 4 November 2009

La Seine à Argenteuil with its tranquil ambiance and focus on the rural, pre-industrial aspects of river life is typical of Alfred Sisley’s finest work (est. $1.5/2 million, £900,000/1.2 million, €1/1.5 million). Painted in 1870 during a stay in Argenteuil with Monet shortly after the Franco-Prussian War, the present canvas belongs to a group of works that documents Sisley’s observations of the town and its riverbanks. While sharing a general affinity with Monet’s work of this period, Sisley’s own particular fixations are evident in the subject matter of these paintings – his compositions place a greater emphasis on the serenity of nature and the subtle harmonies of light and color, unlike those of Monet who often chose to highlight riverside activity or industry as symbols of modernity.

The commune of Sèvres, located just over six miles southwest of central Paris, was the setting of several of Sisley’s landscapes at the height of his involvement with the Impressionist group. The artist moved to Sèvres in 1877 and spent the next three years painting its landmarks, including its bridges, the station house and the well-known porcelain factory. Vue de Sèvres provides a vivid depiction of the landscape’s topography, particularly in its rendering of the steep roadway that trails off into the background (est. $600/800,000, £350/450,000, €450/550,000). From the verdant green that dominates the composition, it seems likely that Sisley painted this oil in late spring or early summer of 1879. By the end of the year Sisley would turn his artistic attention towards views of Moret-sur-Loing, but his experience in Sèvres was fundamental in shaping his technique for those later landscapes.

Sotheby’s 2008 Impressionist and Modern Day Sale

ALFRED SISLEY (1839-1899)

LE CANAL DU LOING AU PRINTEMPS - LE MATIN

oil on canvas Painted in 1897

£200,000-300,000 / €280,000 – 420,000

Le Canal du Loing au printemps - le matin beautifully encapsulates the themes most celebrated in Sisley's work during the 1880s and 90s. Painted from a favourite vantage point along the river Loing near the town of Moret, the present work harmonisesthe tranquil solitude of the tree-lined rural waterside with theplay of reflected light dancing over the surface of the flowing river.Fascinated with capturing the fleeting atmospheric changes, Moret – where Sisley settled in 1889 - provided Sisley with all the aspects essential to achieving some ofhis most appealing compositions. Characteristic of his working methods, Sisley started painting the sky in Le Canal du Loing before the foreground, infusing a strength and dynamism into the composition at the outset. During the 80s and 90s, Sisley enjoyed a close relationship with Monet and their work simultaneously adopted similarities. The treatment of water and use of blocks of colour in the present work recall Monet's depictions of the lily pond at Giverny and show Sisley at the height of his Impressionistic prowess.

Christie's 2015

A painting rarely seen within Alfred Sisley’s (1839-1899) oeuvre, Le potager, has resided in just two private collections since it was painted in 1872 (estimate: £1.5-2 million). Unseen in public for over half a century, it is coming to auction for the first time in over 80 years having passed by descent from the present owner’s grandfather. Sisley’s depictions of the rural, French countryside occupy an important position in the early development of Impressionism and Le potager dates from a decisive year in his career during which he left Paris and his Impressionist style emerged. At the beginning of the 1870s, Sisley, along with Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro, was drawn to the small riverside towns and villages of the Île-de-France, finding a wealth of inspiration in the meeting of open, unspoiled nature, and increasingly cultivated and inhabited land. With bright, harmonious colour, varied brushstrokes and bold contrasts of light and shade, Le potager demonstrates the new artistic vocabulary that Sisley and his Impressionist colleagues employed, imbuing their paintings with an innovative vitality and spontaneity, characteristics that became the abiding principles of the Impressionist movement.

Sotheby's 2014